Help From Unlikely Places
by Samantha-Girl Scout
Summary: Things have been tough lately for Marinette. Chat Noir is out of town and Hawk Moth has figured it out. Eventually it becomes too much and Marinette breaks down at school.


The bathroom door slams open with a resounding bang as Ladybug flies in at top speed. Her transformation falls moments later and Marinette is left standing in her place. Normally, she would rush back to class as soon as she could, but today Marinette makes no move to leave.

Today's akuma took an inordinate amount of time to defeat. With Chat Noir out of town it had become twice as difficult for Ladybug to defeat akuma. And, while she had kept his trip a secret, after the second fight without her partner, Hawk Moth had figured it out. It wasn't long after he started to increase the frequency of akuma attacks and it was truly taking a toll on her.

Marinette pulls out her phone and feels her heart sink. There are several messages from Alya. They were supposed to meet for lunch to talk, but it's easily an hour after she would have gone to class. Alya is a blessing in Marinette's life both in and out of costume, but as she reads through the messages she wonders if it is only a matter of time before Alya starts looking for company elsewhere.

After clearing the messages, Marinette checks the time again and realizes that it is more than halfway through her chemistry class. A class where they are supposed to be taking a very important test. A class that she is very nearly failing…

Marinette's eyes water as she stares blankly at the screen.

"…Marinette?" Tikki asks carefully. The kwami has been silent, but as tears start rolling down her chosen's face she tries to ascertain as to what is wrong.

"Not now, T-Tikki," Marinette says as she opens her purse and starts fumbling for a tissue. Her hands are shaking, but eventually she is able to pull it out and try to use it to staunch her tears.

But, the harder she tries, the faster they fall.

In no time, Marinette is crying harder than she ever has before. She's dimly aware of Tikki attempting to comfort her, but cannot seem to concentrate on more than the very real possibility of losing everything in the face of being a superhero. Not only are her relationships crumbling but also all of her chances of becoming a successful fashion designer. Because, if she fails chemistry, it's likely that she'll lose her chance at her dream school. And if she can't go there, then she'll most likely be left to work at her parents' bakery for the rest of her life.

All because of her life as a superhero.

Her hand goes to her earlobe and she absently runs her fingers over the cool surface. She once considered giving them away because she didn't feel worthy, but now she thinks that maybe she should give them away so that she can return to being a normal girl with a normal life.

Marinette's other hand comes up to the ear. It would be so easy to give this life up. No one knows that she's Ladybug and while she wouldn't wish the stress of being a superhero on anyone, she knows that Alya would gladly bear the burden. Perhaps if she left a note and the Miraculous in her bag then—

The bathroom door opens and Marinette hears the sound of people milling about. Her hands drop to her lap as she looks up to find Chloe Bourgeois standing in the doorway. The two of them stare at each other for a few moments before Chloe turns around and speaks to Sabrina.

"Guard the door. I need to do my makeup in privacy."

"Okay, Chloe," Sabrina says. Marinette isn't sure if the other girl sees her or not, but she doesn't acknowledge her as Chloe shuts the door behind her. Chloe doesn't spare her another glance and stand in front of the wall-length mirror to check over her makeup and hair.

Marinette knows that Chloe isn't nearly as prickly as she used to be, but she still expected at least one comment. No one knows how or why Chloe started to change her behavior this past year, but no one dares question it too much for fear of her potential regression.

There is still a rivalry between the two of them, but none of their arguments hold malice anymore. More often than not, they choose to ignore each other. Truthfully Marinette just doesn't have the time and energy to deal with the other girl. Sometimes she wonders what the other girl does in her spare time now that she isn't terrorizing the school, but those thoughts are few and far between.

Marinette watches as Chloe touches up her makeup for a short while, but eventually she decides to ignore her as well. In all honesty, she should do what she can to return to her classes to at least attempt to persuade her teacher to allow her to take the test later. But even a simple task such as washing her face and putting on her normally cheery smile seems like too much effort.

Marinette hugs her knees and places her head atop them. She can feel more tears pricking her eyes, but while Chloe is affording her space, Marinette would rather die than let her former bully see her cry. Marinette sniffs and curls in on herself even tighter. Perhaps if she makes herself smaller Chloe will leave sooner?

The sound of a compact shutting echoes in the bathroom like a gunshot. Marinette can hear the sound of makeup products being moved around and then the sound of footsteps. But, instead of hearing them moving towards the door, she notices that they are coming closer.

Curious, Marinette lifts her head and is shocked to see Chloe situating herself on the floor in front of her. She doesn't acknowledge Marinette, but instead is looking through her purse. Moments later she finds what she is searching for and pulls it out. Instinctively Marinette shrinks back, but whatever her wild imagination had thought, she is surprised to find two packs of tissues lying in Chloe's hand.

"Wipe your face and sit up," Chloe says shortly as she all but throws them at Marinette. She catches them out of habit and looks down at them dubiously. One pack contains tissues while the other appears to be makeup remover wipes. Marinette looks back up to find Chloe arranging her makeup products on top of a circle of fabric.

"W-" Marinette's voice cracks. She sits up and does her best to clear her throat. "What are you doing?"

"Redoing your makeup, obviously."

"Why?"

"Well you don't want to go back to classes looking like a train wreck—" Chloe stops abruptly when Marinette's hands ball around the items in her hands. Her own hands go to the bridge of her nose as she shakes her head. She groans in frustration. "I'm so bad at this."

"You're telling me,"

Chloe sighs. "What I _mean_ is that you don't have anything to fix your makeup with so I thought I'd save us both some time and just do it for you."

"But, _why_ are you doing this?"

"It's the least that I—" Chloe stops short again. She sputters for a moment before clearing her throat. "I'm just feeling extra generous today. You got a problem with that?"

Marinette stares at Chloe. She tries to search for indications that Chloe is lying to her. That there is some form of malice behind her actions. But the more she looks, the more she realizes that Chloe's offer is a genuine one.

"Alright," Marinette says as she carefully pulls out a tissue and uses it to blow her nose. "But I swear if you give me raccoon eyes I'll—"

"How dare you imply that my work is mediocre!" Chloe says as she rips the pack of wipes out of Marinette's hands. "I'll have you know, my makeovers receive thousands of likes on Instagram!"

Suddenly, Chloe is in Marinette's personal space. Instinctively Marinette flinches back, but Chloe either doesn't notice or ignores it. She brings a wipe up to Marinette's face and carefully, and with a much gentler touch than Marinette would expect, removes the remnants of her makeup.

As odd as the situation is, the two girls fall into a comfortable silence as Chloe works. There is something cathartic about allowing someone else do something like this for her, and as Chloe blends her foundation, Marinette finds herself relaxing a small degree.

After a while, Chloe stops in the middle of her work. Marinette looks up in confusion and finds a look that is far more serious than she can remember ever seeing on Chloe's face before. "You know that you're allowed to ask people for help right? Like, you don't have to do _literally_ everything by yourself."

Marinette furrows her brows. "What do you mean?"

Chloe frowns and sets down her brush. "Look, I know you're not going to tell me about whatever is going on in your life. And, actually, we're probably better off not talking about that kind of stuff… A-And I'm definitely not going to promise that, whatever it is, is going to turn out okay since I can't promise you anything since I don't have a single clue as to what is going on in your life. At All."

Chloe coughs awkwardly .

"What I _do_ want to say is that you're being a terrible class representative."

Marinette balks at the statement. "Excuse you? What does that have to do with—"

"You never say no when people make outrageous requests of you. You try to do everything on your own without delegating anything to the rest of the class."

"But—"

"If you try to tell me that everyone is 'too busy' I swear to god that I will leave your makeup half done."

"Shove it." Marinette goes to stand, but Chloe reaches forward and pushes her back down. Marinette is about to tell her exactly what Chloe can do with her hand if she doesn't remove it when the hard look in Chloe's face softens.

Chloe sighs. "Sorry, I know all of that sounded harsh, and it's probably not what you wanted to hear right now. We both know I'm terrible at this kind of thing. But… Even _I_ can tell that you're taking on too much."

Marinette stops struggling to stand and just stares at Chloe. In all of the years that she's known the girl, Marinette has never seen her like this. And, while she is loath to admit it, a lot of what Chloe is saying is true. And, though Chloe is very much off of the mark…

It makes Marinette wonder for the first time in her superheroine career about how she and Chat might go about finding help in defeating Hawk Moth. She's always believed that they could handle this on their own, but perhaps they might be able to speak with Master Fu about finding someone to help. At the very least during times when one of them has to be out of town.

"Everyone is too nice to say anything because we all know how you like to help people," Chloe is saying when Marinette starts paying attention again, "but you really need to start relying more on everyone else and saying 'no' more often. I can tell you that everyone in class loves you and would do literally anything for you if you asked them. But you're human and can only do so much, you know?"

"I guess," Marinette reluctantly concedes.

"Good," Chloe says as she picks up her brush. "I only have a little bit left now."

"Okay."

Marinette half expects Chloe to tell her 'I told you so' or something similar, but she's grateful that she leaves the conversation there. They lapse back into silence, but after only a short while Marinette feels the urge to explain herself to Chloe start to mount. And, eventually she finds that cannot fight the urge to open her mouth.

With an excuse that Chloe doesn't even bat an eye at, Marinette explains everything about her Chemistry class. About how she is almost failing and how she missed a test that might have helped her pass the class. She nearly starts crying again, but she does her best to keep it together so as not to ruin Chloe's work.

After she finishes, Chloe pauses with a thoughtful look on her face. She sits back to examine Marinette and, after it seems that she is satisfied, stands up without a word and goes to the door. Once open she whispers a few words to Sabrina.

Sabrina glances beyond Chloe. She looks at Marinette for a few moments before returning her gaze to Chloe and nodding. Without another word she leaves the doorway and walks away.

"What's going on?" Marinette asks as Chloe reaches towards her to help stand up.

"Don't worry about your test. Sabrina is going to take care of it. You should be able to take it after school today."

"But how—"

"I said don't worry about it," Chloe says with a roll of her eyes. She pushes Marinette toward the mirror. "I could have done better if you had been sitting in a proper chair, but I imagine that nobody of consequence will notice."

Marinette looks at herself in the mirror. She is actually quite impressed. It looks as though it had been professionally done, but yet it was not nearly as bold as Chloe's. In the mirror she notices Chloe gathering her things. She is about to turn to help, but with one pull of a string the cloth turns from a mat into a bag and is put away in no time at all.

The warning bell rings.

"Well, we'd better go," Chloe says as she readjusts her hair in the mirror. "I'll have Sabrina text you the details of where you can take your test."

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it. Like I said I was—"

"No," Marinette says, "Really. Thank you. All of this really meant a lot to me."

Chloe seems taken aback by Marinette's emphatic statement. She opens her mouth once, twice, three times before her cheeks flush and she looks anywhere but at the girl in front of her.

"Just. Don't get used to me doing your makeup all the time. I can't waste all of my products on you, you know." She almost makes it out of the bathroom before she pauses and says:

"Don't forget forget what I said: you can't be a hero all the time."

Marinette's brows furrow and she goes to correct Chloe, but before she can open her mouth the girl is gone. Marinette stares at the space that Chloe's vacated and wonders if she'll ever know exactly why the other girl chose to help her today and whether she'll get to see this side of Chloe again in the future.

* * *

 _A/N: Thanks for reading! This was written for the Lean on Me zine over on tumblr. If you want to read all of the other lovely pieces/see all of the art that was created hop on over to their tumblr "miraculeanonmezine" and look through what they've reblogged/the instructions for getting the zine._


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